DOWN IN THE DEMPS; Blues are becoming the fall guys under Big Phil In association with COMMERCIAL VEHICLES BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE.

Byline: BY MARTIN LIPTON Chief Football Writer

FULHAM 2

CHELSEA 2

TWO MORE points dropped, yet more questions to be answered by the manager.

And while Chelsea still have the title destiny in their own hands, the fans are starting to doubt Luiz Felipe Scolari's vision will bring the glittering prizes back to Stamford Bridge.

At Craven Cottage last night, as Clint Dempsey soared to plant his 90thminute header past a stranded Petr Cech and cut off the Chelsea victory chants in their prime, the Brazilian tried to suggest that all is well in his world.

But it is not, not by a long chalk.

When you have dropped 11 points out of the last 21 it cannot possibly be, for all the efforts by Scolari to downplay the stresses and strains.

The bitter fact is that Chelsea under Scolari are doing what they rarely did under Avram Grant or Jose Mourinho.

You could put your life savings on Mourinho's Blues holding on to a lead, but Scolari's Chelsea are far less resilient.

When Frank Lampard capped a typically rumbustious display by smashing his second of the game through a disintegrating Fulham wall 17 minutes from time, there looked to be only one result . Instead, inexplicably, Dempsey was allowed a virtually unmolested jump to send Simon Davies' corner into Cech's top corner, ensuring Fulham joined Spurs, Arsenal, Burnley and Bordeaux in coming back to deprive the Blues of victory.

It means Liverpool have opened up a three-point gap over Chelsea at the top, and also means Manchester United can overtake the Blues if they win their three games in hand.

To make matters worse, Scolari was also publicly criticised by a section of the Blues fans who taunted him with a cry of "You don't know what you're doing" when he took off fan favourite Joe Cole rather than the underwhelming Deco.

Such grumbles only add to dressing room doubts. If Chelsea do not bring home the bacon in May, Dempsey's late equaliser may go down as one of the pivotal moments of the season.

The reality is that Chelsea should have walked it. They dominated possession, and carved out numerous chances as Lampard buzzed and Didier Drogba, preferred to top scorer Nicolas Anelka, threatened constantly.

Yet in the final analysis, this was the time when they paid for the absence of the suspended John Terry. It is hard to imagine Dempsey scoring his second goal had the Blues skipper been on the pitch.

No wonder Scolari held a half-time post-mortem, which became a full blown inquest at the final whistle.

Fulham's opener was, defensively, truly grotesque, starting with Alex's needless foul on Andy Johnson.

Davies swung in from the left and nobody in a blue shirt showed the required determination, with fingers surely being pointed at Alex, Branislav Ivanovic and John Obi Mikel, all of whom should have done far better.

Cech, too, faces questioning for remaining static on his line, adecision he was left to rue as Dempsey, with his back to goal, controlled on his chest before hooking home with an outstretched toe.

Dream time for Fulham and pressure for Scolari who was not helped by two enforced changes.

Florent Malouda and Alex both limped off before the break, with Anelk a and the badly-missed Ricardo Carvalho replacing them.

Still, Chelse a should have been level at least. The best opening came when Drogba rolled Aaron Hughes to send himself through on goal, only to side foot wide of the target.

While Chelsea did fashion a host of other openings, they found Mark Schwarzer a mix of the magnificent and the staggeringly fortunate, with excellent saves to deny Lampard sand wich in gabizarreknee-stop that prevented Anelka from scoring with his first touch.

But there were still far too many loose passes, with Deco the most culpable, and had Bobby Zamora been able to bypass Cech and pick out the unmarked Davies nine minutes before the interval, Chelsea would have been staring defeat in the face.

Even so, the first-half evidence made what followed inevitable, as Schwarzer undid all his good work not once, but twice.

Chelsea's first goal, four minutes in to the second half, was a nightmare for the Aussie keeper, as Joe Cole, previously quiet, dinked forward towards Drogba.

Schwarzer was in the box seat to claim but instead clattered into Hughes, leaving Lampard the simplest of tasks to tap into the gaping net.

Drogba, freed by Lampard, blazed over and Schwarzer twice denied midfielder Cole but, 17 minutes from time, after Johnson had needlessly fouled Deco, Chelsea were in front - just as the Blues fans were showing their unhappiness.

Lampard, for a fizzer of a free-kick that dipped in front of the wrong footed Schwarzer, took the plaudits butcredit should also go to Carvalho, the master of the dark arts, who somehow managed to provide the hole in the wall for the shot to slip through.

All over, it seemed. Yet, criminally, Chelsea went to sleep at the back again, Drogba jumping under the ball to leave Hughes as Dempsey's only rival to turn the ball home.

There was time for a last near-miss as Ashley Cole was foiled by Schwarzer, and a mass of white shirts denied Lampard his hat-trick from the rebound.

But at Chelsea there is no place for hard-luck stories, no room for misfortune.

If you can not win and keep winning, the doubts begin to mount up.

Scolari has accumulated too many already.

COMPUTER

FULHAM

CHELSEA

DAY TO FORGET FOR CHELSEA

BALL POSSESSION

44%

56%

FACE TO FACE

1 Corners 7

1 Offside 4

68% Pass completion 78%

26 Tackles 21

11 Fouls 9

1 Cards 2

SHOTS

3 off target 7

2 on target 8

YOU THE MANAGER

MAN OF THE MATCH (Worth an extra two Fantasy League points)

Frank Lampard (CHELSEA)

8

Without the England ace it really could have been messy.

Ran the show

VILLAIN OF THE MATCH

Deco (CHELSEA)

4

Passing to the blue shirts once in a while might help

ANORAK The Blues had conceded just one away goal all season before Clint Dempsey opened the scoring

NEXT THREE GAMES

FULHAM

Saturday: Sheff Wed (a) FA Cup Sat Jan 10: Blackburn (h) Prem Sun Jan 18: West Ham (a) Prem

CHELSEA

Saturday: Southend (h) FA Cup Sun Jan 11: Man Utd (a) Prem Sat Jan 17: Stoke (h) Prem

FULHAM: Schwarzer 7, Pantsil 6, Hangeland 7, Hughes 6, Konchesky 6, Dempsey 6, Murphy 7 (Baird 90), Etuhu 6 (Andreasen 79), Davies 6, Johnson 7, Zamora 6 (Nevland 79). Goals: Dempsey 10, 89.

CHELSEA:Cech 6, Bosingwa 6d, Ivanovic 5, Alex 6 (Carvalho 37, 6), A Cole 7, Mikel 7, J Cole 6 (Kalou, 72, 5), Deco 4, Lampard 8, Malouda 5 (Anelka 31, 6), Drogba 7 d. Goals: Lampard 50, 72.

REFEREE: Andre Marriner ATTENDANCE: 25,462

CAPTION(S):

DOWN FOR IT Schwarzer denies Drogba; UP FOR IT Lampard celebrates after putting Chelsea 2-1 ahead; FEELING THE CHILL Scolari has plenty to think about as he leaves Craven Cottage yesterday; GOAL! Dempsey looks round to see his flicked shot cross the line for Fulham's opener; GOAL! Dempsey (centre) stuns Chelsea with his headed equaliser a minute from time